Michael John Theron
Accessible & Personalized Mental Healthcare
Therapy at MJT
Whether you are considering therapy for the first time, returning to it after some time, or simply exploring your options, this page offers a practical introduction to therapy at MJT and what the process may involve.
About Therapy
Therapy offers a collaborative, confidential and non-judgemental space in which to speak openly, make sense of challenging or unclear experiences, and consider possible ways forward. Depending on what brings you to therapy, the process may include developing practical skills and working towards solutions; exploring questions of self, identity and direction; gaining insight into experiences or patterns; working with communication and relationships; and receiving support around life stages and transitions.
At MJT, therapy is guided by a clear sense of purpose, while remaining flexible and responsive to individual needs. We review together: what you hope to achieve, what is changing, and whether the therapeutic process remains helpful. Our approach combines clinical depth with respect for autonomy, dignity and lived experience.
Where a referral or additional support may be beneficial, this is considered collaboratively as part of consultation and assessment.
Starting Therapy
Deciding to begin therapy can feel significant. You may have a clear sense of what has brought you here, or you may simply feel that it would be helpful to have a private and supportive space in which to reflect.
The early sessions provide an opportunity to speak about your concerns, ask practical questions and consider whether therapy at MJT feels right for you. There is no expectation that you will arrive with your challenges fully understood or perfectly expressed.
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
Approaches To Therapy:
An Integrated, Client-Responsive Approach
Psychotherapy at MJT is shaped around the client’s needs, goals, personality, context, and stage of the process. We may draw from different frameworks at different times, combining insight, structure, practical tools, and relational support in a way that remains clinically thoughtful and personally meaningful.
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Practical, skills-based approaches can help clients better understand patterns in their thoughts, emotions, behaviours, and relationships, while developing tools to respond differently. These approaches are often structured and active, but not rigid. At MJT, they are adapted to the client’s circumstances, goals, readiness, and wider life context.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, explores the relationship between thoughts, emotions, behaviours, and life situations. It can help clients identify unhelpful patterns, test new perspectives, and practise more constructive ways of responding to challenges.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, helps clients relate differently to difficult thoughts and emotions, rather than becoming stuck in a struggle against them. It emphasises values, psychological flexibility, and meaningful action, even in the presence of discomfort.
Dialectical Behavioural Therapy
DBT-based skills draw from Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, particularly in areas such as emotional regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness. These skills may be helpful when clients feel overwhelmed, reactive, emotionally stuck, or unsure how to navigate difficult situations without escalating distress.
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These approaches place emphasis on the person behind the difficulty. They focus on self-understanding, autonomy, strengths, values, personal meaning, and the possibility of constructive change. At MJT, they help ensure therapy remains human, collaborative, and grounded in the client’s lived experience rather than reducing the person to symptoms alone.
Client-Centred Therapy
Client-centred therapy is built around empathy, respect, and a non-judgemental therapeutic relationship. It creates space for clients to explore their experiences honestly, develop greater self-understanding, and reconnect with their own capacity for growth, choice, and direction.
Solution-Focused Therapy
Solution-focused therapy is a practical, goal-oriented approach that helps clients clarify what they want to move toward, not only what they want to move away from. It focuses on strengths, resources, previous progress, and small, workable steps that can support meaningful change.
Positive Psychology
A positive psychology framework explores strengths, resilience, meaning, purpose, values, and well-being. It does not ignore distress or difficulty, but helps clients build towards a life that feels more stable, constructive, and personally meaningful.
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These approaches help clients explore how earlier experiences, relationships, developmental history, and recurring emotional patterns may shape present difficulties. The focus is not only on symptom relief but also on deeper self-understanding, emotional insight, and the recognition of patterns that may influence choices, relationships, identity, and wellbeing.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Psychodynamic therapy explores how past experiences, unconscious patterns, emotional conflicts, and important relationships may continue to influence present thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. It can help clients understand recurring patterns more clearly and create space for meaningful personal change.
Interpersonal & Relational Approaches
Interpersonal and relational approaches focus on how relationships shape emotional wellbeing. This may include exploring attachment patterns, communication, trust, boundaries, conflict, loss, intimacy, and the ways clients experience themselves in relation to others.
Developmental Psychology
A developmental psychology lens considers how different stages of life, early experiences, family context, identity formation, and major transitions can shape psychological wellbeing. This lens can be especially useful when working with adolescents, young adults, parents, caregivers, or clients navigating significant life changes.
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Family and systems-informed approaches consider the wider context around a person’s difficulties, including relationships, family dynamics, roles, communication patterns, boundaries, and the environments in which problems develop or persist. At MJT, this may include direct family-based work where appropriate, as well as systems-informed individual therapy that helps clients understand how their broader context shapes their experience.
Family Systems Therapy
Family systems therapy understands difficulties within the context of family relationships and interaction patterns. Rather than viewing one person as “the problem,” it examines how roles, communication, expectations, conflict, loyalty, boundaries, and patterns within the family system may contribute to distress or create opportunities for change.
Strategic Family Therapy
Strategic family therapy is a focused and practical approach to family-based work. It pays attention to the patterns that may be maintaining a problem and helps identify specific shifts in communication, behaviour, roles, or boundaries that may support healthier family functioning.
Systems-Informed Individual Work
Systems-informed individual work helps clients understand how relationships, family background, work environment, culture, responsibilities, and wider life context may influence mental health. This approach can be useful when personal difficulties cannot be fully understood in isolation from the systems around the person.
Therapy-Related FAQs
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10:00 - 18:00 (Monday - Thursday)
11:00 - 17:00 (Friday)
09:00 - 13:00 (Saturday) -
A typical therapy session last 45 - 50 minutes.
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This depends on your medical aid and the specific plan you are on. Most medical aids do cover psychotherapy, and your claims are automatically submitted on your behalf by the practice (if so desired).
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Absolutely. As a clinical psychology practice, we adhere to the ethical standards & guidelines set by the Health Professions Council of South Africa, and the Constitution of South Africa. We cannot disclose any information without your written consent.
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Therapy may be helpful when something feels difficult to manage, unclear, repetitive or emotionally demanding. You do not need to be in crisis, or have a diagnosis, to seek support. For some people, the starting point is a particular concern; for others, it is simply a sense that it would help to think with someone.
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An initial consultation provides an opportunity to speak about what has brought you to therapy, ask practical questions and consider what kind of support may be helpful. It also allows us to assess whether therapy at MJT feels appropriate for your needs at this time.
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Yes. You are welcome to contact the practice directly, whether or not you have received a diagnosis or been referred by another professional. Where input from another practitioner may be helpful, this can be discussed collaboratively.
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For many individuals, weekly sessions offer a useful rhythm and continuity. Frequency is considered in relation to your context and needs, the nature of the therapeutic work and practical sustainability. It can be reviewed as therapy develops.
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The length of therapy varies. Some people seek support around a particular concern over a focused period; others benefit from more sustained work. Therapy at MJT is guided by clear purpose and ongoing reflection on progress towards desired outcomes, and what remains helpful.
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Psychotherapy is confidential, within defined ethical and legal limits. These include situations in which there is a serious concern about your safety or the safety of someone else, or where disclosure is required by law. Confidentiality and its limits will be discussed clearly at the outset.
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Online therapy may be available where it is clinically appropriate and where a private, reliable setting can be established. This can discussed upon contact with the practice.
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MJT does not provide emergency or crisis intervention. If you are in immediate danger, feel unable to keep yourself safe, or require urgent mental-health support, please contact emergency services, a crisis service or your nearest emergency department.
Making Contact
If you feel ready to begin, or would simply like further information before deciding, the practice is available to help you consider an appropriate next step.
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